hpwrestler220

You would avoid hitting bumpstops by using a stiffer damper? Wouldn't that help?


So i did finally relax. I took my car for another ride on the same roads i was having problems with and i decided to take them at the speed limit or slightly faster as opposed to the race-car driving i was doing the other day when i posted up about the suspension problems. the car still did bounce quite a bit in the consecutively hilly section of the highway, but that's just it -- bouncing. It wasn't even unbearable this time. When i was going down the highway at 85-90mph the car was unbearable, but on these same bumps at 75 mph, the car was riding pretty well. Just a little bit slow to rebound

The car and my body were uniformly going over the bumps and lightly bouncing. I could feel the car damping the motions back to stability. I hit some bumps while turning at a normal or slightly higher speed and the car never bounced or jolted off to the side. It just rode "a little rough" when doing so. Didn't bother my back or anything like that. It just wasnt smooth!

I am willing to bet that if i put another few miles on the dampers and hit the same roads, that it will become much worse. But as of tonight when i took the car out for a 45min joyride after switching back to the mach springs, the car was riding up to my expectations for a slammed car with tokico HP's.

I think i just need a better set of dampers seeing as how my spring rate increased. I think it's worth a shot spending some money on some koni's or bilsteins..

I can only see the ride quality getting better with a better set of dampers, am i right?

To put this in perspective, you can still pretty much get about 1.5 fingers in my rear fenders. As long as you dont have chode/sausage fingers

teej281

You are correct. I'd go for the bilsteins.

hpwrestler220

Hoss - how about you do some engineering/mechanical work here... If you cut a spring, does it or does it not increase the spring rating?

This is how i see it. Let's say you have 15 coils on a spring with a spring rating of 150... This gives you 10lbs/coil. You chop off a coil. Now you have 14 coils with the spring rating of 150. 150/14 = 10.7lbs/coil

Sure the 150 spring rating was a constant for the 14 and 15 coils, but the force per coil was increased. THUS INCREASING THE SPRING RATING!

When i said to Jason that my springs should have a slightly increased spring rating since i cut them, he IMMEDIATELY said "Not at all, I've never heard of that" in the most stern voice ever...

And teej - i waited 15 minutes to talk to a tech which is what i requested to the lady who first answered the call. And he said his name was jason... Whether he knew anything or not, i really am not sure. I think i am right about the spring rating thing imo

Jazzer The Cat

The springs are used to avoid bottoming out, while the damper is used to smooth out rapid movement from a bump/dip, settle the car smoothly so that the tires maintain as reasonable weight distribution to the road surface and avoid going boing-boing-boing down the street.

If shocks/struts were real stiff, you would beat the crap out of your kidneys and handle poorly on the street due to the car being suddenly pushed up over a bump or dip.

... and you are not liking it much, are you

For as slammed as my car is, and can just about guarantee is lower than anyone reading this post, it rides quite well, but on CO's, just like the BMW's to which you refer. Higher speeds are going to place differing forces on your car than slower ones. If I recall correctly, the last time I passed 70 MPH in my ride was the day I purchased it coming home on HWY 5 over 4 years ago. With the single exception of Infineon and hit 90 at a couple points around the track, I am sure I have not gone that fast, so don't really know how she rides at such speeds with current set-up. I bet it would ride good, but I have very well matched springs and dampers.

Jazzer + this post = salt in hp's wound

teej281

Jason is one of two sales people at MM. They probably put you through to him because they didn't want you getting pissy because of waiting for so long. Let me call and talk to them tomorrow. They aren't gonna say anything different. But to do it properly, you really should get either better springs or coilovers.

But CO's FTMFW!!!!!!!!! oh and my post wouldn't be complete without...


















IRS FTMFGDW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hpwrestler220

haha call them and get back to me teej!

I might just order me some bilstein HD's.. They are going to add another 1/4" to my ride height anyway bc of the added compression so it's really not even going to be lower than H&R SS

Jazzer The Cat

How are shocks going to add height to your ride? The car rides on the springs, the shocks only dampen their movement.

Jazzer = confused by hp's post

teej281

The stiffer valving of the bilsteins causes a slight increase in ride height. When I first put on my front 03 cobra bilsteins, they raised the front end of the car a noticeable amount. It's quite common among bilstein dampers.

Jazzer The Cat

Well, I know that some gas-pressurizes shocks can lift a bit, but haven't heard of this before now. But.... as I have always said, not soo good with shock knowledge

PurpleIcedGT

This suspension sh*t is like open heart surgery, there are like 239048 components to it. Gives me a headache..